Hello folks.
My name is Mike, I joined last night. Hopefully I am not breaking any rules already, but I wanted to say I am here with a first post.
I am new to Hi-Lo, but not new to camping. I really enjoyed all the fun and adventure I had when I was young, camping with my family. Now at 40 years old, I thought it would be fun for my girlfriend to experience some of the fun that I had.
About a year ago, I acquired a 1985 Coleman Royale pop up trailer for free. Stored for over 20 years and in very nice condition overall. After about $500,tires/wheels/awning/battery & registration we were ready to go camping.
After 4 camping trips I quickly realized it was time to move up the ladder to a hard sided trailer. Because of storage issues, we needed a trailer that would fit under a 8 foot carport. All the trailers we looked at were 9 feet and above. That's when we discovered Hi-Lo and we are very happy we did!
After a month of looking at ads for Hi-Lo's and checking out a couple in person, we were extremely lucky and found a very original and well taken care of 84 funlite. It too had been stored for many years. The seller had acquired it in a trade from the original owner as partial payment for a landscaping job. A stack of records and receipts found inside a cabinet drawer told most of the story and showed a new dometic awning and coleman air conditioning unit. Both installed by a local RV dealer/repair shop in 2004 at the price of a little over $1100. After some negotiating with the seller, we settled on a price of $2500. Left a deposit and rushed home to post the coleman up for sale. Put the coleman up for sale on craigs' and it sold for $1500 quickly. Very exited, I then wrapped up the deal on the funlite and now the Hi-Lo is here in our driveway.
First thing on my to do list was to get rid of the brown 80's shag carpet that someone added a very long time ago. After about an hour we were both pleased to find the original, possibly armstrong? floor in great condition underneath! Although I really like the dark paneling and rust colored cushions, the lighter color floor really brightened up the inside. Future plans before camping are:
inspect roof and windows for leaks
light the furnace & check for leaks
2 new tires & paint rims white
inspect brakes & re pack wheel bearings
new curtains
find the 1 missing original cabinet handle
After a week of getting to know the trailer better, and having fun reading many posts by other members, my to do list has grown a bit. I have been searching the forums here and google images for early 80's Hi-Lo interior and outside pictures to use for reference. This will be more of a preservation than a restoration. We would love to find a picture of the original curtain material to copy. Also would like to find the original spare tire cover and dual propane tank cover with the original Hi-Lo logos on them. Thanks for reading my post and we are looking forward to hearing any advise, input or ideas from other members. Everyone loves pics, so here are some of our new to us 1984 funlite.
